Marc Santiago
Email: msantiago@wsu.edu
Phone: 360-213-8792
Moving from place to place can be a difficult feat. Many people experience the physical and emotional pains of leaving the one place that is familiar to them. Some people do not even get a chance to call a place their home.
Sophomore Lena Seino, public relations major, has moved a lot in her life, and that does not mean just down the street or a town over, but from country to country multiple times.
Born in Hirosaki, Japan, Seino learned about the Japanese culture and how different the American culture is compared and the Japanese culture.
“Looking back I realized the Japanese culture is very class based,” Seino said. “They respect their elders and are reserved with their emotions. That’s where I feel I acquired most of my mannerisms.”
When Seino went to school in Japan, many of her peers called her a “Gaijin” meaning outside person.
“ I was ostracized by the other kids because my dad is Japanese and my mom is American,” she said.
When Seino turned 6 her and her family moved to Seattle. so she could pursue her education in a safer environment. However, she did not know that it would just as hard in the United States.
“When I started first-grade, the kids called me the Japanese girl,” she said. Seino could not understand why she could not be accepted as being both races. It made her adolescent years difficult.
Before her fifth-grade year Seino’s parents had told her they were moving once again, but this time to Mandeville, Jamaica because of her dad’s job. She left all of her friends and the relationships that she had previously built and started over.
Seino quickly learned how to easily make connections with people and then disconnect herself at a very young age.
“I couldn’t let myself get too attached to people because it just made moving so much more stressful,” she said.
Lena Seino’s sorority sister, Eleanor Liebhaber, senior public relations major, said that Seino is one of the most outgoing people she has ever met.
“Lena is always quick to mingle with people when we go out,” Liebhaber said. “She just doesn’t care what people think of her.”
“I learned to be independent at a young age,” Seino said. “A lot of who I am now is because of all the moving I have done in my life.”
Seino hopes to work with a company that deals with global issues. Moving around the world has made her aware of different cultures and different ways of life.
After living in Jamaica for a year, Seino and her family moved to Woodinville, Wash. where she has currently lived for 10 years.
“After the first couple of years of living in Woodinville, I felt a sense of relief,” she explained. “ There is a great satisfaction I knowing that I finally have a place to call home.”
Contact Information
Lena Seino
206-817-1167
425-280-4287
Janice Seino
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